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Japanese Visit, on the Surface: Jovial Bush, Friendly Crowds

By MICHAEL WINES,

Published: January 8, 1992

He is about to engage the Japanese Government in a titanic struggle over his nation's economic future. But on Tuesday, opening a four-day state visit to Japan to discuss trade and security issues, President Bush was trying his utmost to build bridges, not wreck them.

He played tourist at an ancient palace. He engaged an astonished circle of middle-aged Japanese men in a slightly goofy, highly telegenic game in which a leather ball is kicked around. He waxed enthusiastic to college students about brotherhood and understanding. He undertook that most American of political tasks -- a ribbon cutting at a new store.

In all of this, often over a din of brass bands and lusty cheers, Mr. Bush sought to improve the unflattering image that his visit has taken on in Japan, that of a strong-arm raid on the mercantile system and even the national treasury.

"I will do my level best as President of the United States to preserve and strengthen the important relationship between Japan and my country," he said at one point. "It has a lot to do with world peace. It has a lot to do with world economic stability. It has a lot to do with two great economic and democratic countries working together, setting an example for other countries around the world."

This morning, Mr. Bush and Japan's Prime Minister, Kiichi Miyazawa, dropped in on business and government officials of both their countries and conducted a brief colloquy to underscore their mutual interest in seeing the trade talks go well.

"President Bush and I are working hard to advance our bilateral relationship, including its economic relationship," Mr. Miyazawa said "not only for the sake of our two countries, but for the world.".

The President, in his trademark stacatto, replied: "We've got to be specific; we've got to get as much as we can -- set tables, times, let's do it by then. And I think we can do it."

Because of the enormous financial influence of both nations, he said, "world leadership is at stake."

Despite these remarks, it was not clear how long Tuesday's veneer of hospitality that preceded today's serious business, or their optimistic tone, might last.

Aides to Mr. Miyazawa were reported to remain deadlocked with American officials over demands that Japanese automakers sharply increase purchases of American-made components, even beyond a commitment to buy an additional $8 billion in American-made parts by 1994.
Auto Magnates Weigh In

Automobiles and related products are responsible for three-fourths of the $41 billion yearly trade deficit that Washington runs with Tokyo.

The tension over the visit was further heightened by the heads of Detroit's Big Three automakers, who stepped off Air Force One after a flight here from Osaka on Tuesday night and promptly struck a frosty tone toward their Japanese hosts.

The chairman of Ford, Harold Poling, told reporters that Japanese consumers buy so few American cars because they are too fond of luxury makes like Mercedes and BMW, not because American cars are poorly made.

Japanese bought more than 130,000 German-made automobiles in 1990, but only about 30,000 American-made ones -- and 9,500 of those were Hondas assembled in the United States.

Mr. Poling's counterpart at Chrysler, Lee A. Iacocca, was contemptuous of suggestions by some Japanese officials that problems of quality in American cars, not Japanese trade barriers, were at the root of the Big Three's poor sales in this country.

"We're not that stupid," Mr. Iacocca said. "We know our problems. They don't have to preach to us."

Mr. Iacocca, Mr. Poling and the General Motors chairman, Robert Stempel, are among 18 corporate leaders accompanying Mr. Bush on his visit.

Behind the scenes, the President's aides toiled to bury any expectations of major trade concessions from his talks with Mr. Miyazawa..

Instead, they played up the international security aspects of the visit. These include the signing of a so-called "Tokyo Declaration" that acknowledges the growing global influence of Japan and sets out ways it can work with the United States in addressing both world problems and regional crises.

Bush Administration officials said that Mr. Miyazawa's Government may also agree to foot more of the cost of American military forces in the Pacific region.

When Mr. Bush left Washington for the Pacific 10 days ago, he said that his primary purpose was to "relentlessly pursue our mission to create jobs and restore prosperity for all Americans."

On Tuesday, an Administration official took a different tack, saying, "You've got to look at this in the broader historical perspective of what just happened to the Soviet Union, and the end of the cold war."

This broader perspective did not appear to be of much concern to the touring President, who spent Tuesday playing the role of good-will ambassador and stressing his trade message, perhaps as much for the benefit of audiences back in the United States as here.

Mr. Bush may have had his domestic political opponents on both the left and right in mind when he argued that "free and open commerce is not a zero-sum game. Free trade on a level playing field creates jobs and lifts standards in both of our countries."

On arriving from South Korea early Tuesday, Mr. and Mrs. Bush visited Kyoto, Japan's ancient capital, to tour the restored Shishinden palace, once home to Japan's emperor. His guide was former Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu, who spent much of the day as the Bushes' unofficial host.

Outside the palace, the President saw several men in brightly colored ceremonial garb engaged in a round of kemari, a game in which players kick a deerskin ball to each other, taking care to keep it from touching the ground.

As cameras whirred, Mr. Bush leapt into the circle of astonished men, attacking the horsehair-stuffed ball with obvious relish in soccer style, giving it several bounches off his head.

Not until he was told that that was not allowed under the rules did Mr. Bush relent, and he shortly left, saying to no one in particular, "We won."

Later at a nearby hotel, Mr. Bush briefly met about 200 American and Japanese students who are looking into each other's cultures under university exchange programs.

Noting that Mr. Miyazawa once joined in a student exchange with the United States, Mr. Bush said: "I want the people of our countries to have a better understanding of one another. We need more Americans who can speak Japanese and who understand the workings of the Japanese marketplace."

Then he sped off by helicopter to nearby Kashihara, where he opened an American-owned Toys "R" Us discount store.

Photos: President Bush and his wife, Barbara, were joined on a tour of the Imperial Palace in Kyoto by former Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu and his wife, Sachiyo. Mr. Bush stopped to feed carp in a pool. (pg. A1); American and Japanese officials remained deadlocked over demands that Japanese automakers increase purchases of American-made components. The heads of Detroit's Big Three auto makers spoke to reporters at a news conference in Tokyo. From left were Robert C. Stempel of the General Motors Corporation, Harold Poling of the Ford Motor Company and Lee A. Iacocca of Chrysler Corporation. (pg. A6) (Agence France-Presse)

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